Telegram CEO Arrest Is A Fuzzy Warning To Big Tech

Photo : Reuters/Dado Ruvic

LONDON, (REUTERS) – The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov has energized both critics of Big Tech and ardent libertarians, who fear a fresh crackdown on free speech. The latter fears look overdone, given the specific nature of the case. Yet there’s still a warning to rivals like X’s owner Elon Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s easy to see why Durov’s arrest, carried out by French prosecutors, could be seen as a new front in global regulators and governments war on social media and free speech, as suggested by Musk. It’s the first time a CEO of a large, global messaging platform has been arrested. And Durov himself has a reputation for standing up against powerful governments: he fled Russia in 2014 after refusing to turn over user data from his previous company, the Facebook-like Russian platform VKontakte, to the country’s authorities.

Yet scratch beneath the surface and there’s little immediate read across for other social media platforms. Telegram, like rivals Meta’s WhatsApp, provides messaging services and allows its 950 million monthly users, to broadcast thoughts and media to followers. But Durov has boasted of the group’s lower number of employees and “super-efficient” structure, whereas rival groups like Meta have armies of content moderators.

And the reasons for Durov’s arrest look specific: the investigation relates to complicity in enabling child abuse, the sale of illicit drugs, and money laundering. Prosecutors also mentioned unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement, something Telegram had been accused of before: last year a Brazilian court ordered the app to be blocked for failing to sufficiently help with an investigation into neo-Nazi groups. Telegram said in a statement that the group abides by EU regulations and that Durov “has nothing to hide”.

Gung-ho regulators are unlikely to find it so easy to target other CEOs. Durov is a French citizen, allowing the country’s prosecutors to pursue him in France where, according to one lawyer, it is easier to target employees or directors for the misdeeds of their companies.

Yet the arrest may still have implications for other platforms. Telegram is no minnow: its business stretches from India to Russia and Europe, and it has raised funds from institutional players like the UAE’s Mubadala. If Durov is charged, a global scandal may galvanize politicians and regulators to step up demands for social media platforms to take accountability for their content and do more to moderate it.